Longtime readers will know that Gulf Wars is an important event for me, not only because it's the biggest, most involved event I regularly attend, but because it's my anniversary event for my SCA participation…in 2007, my good friend Gabrielle Chantereau twisted my arm and said, "you really need to come to an event.  Come tent with me."  My life changed.

Gulf Wars has been life-changing for me every year.  The first year was simply mind-blowing, about what the SCA could be for me, encouraging the particular craziness that I thought made me alone, and somewhat lonely in the world.  Here was a whole population of people crazy like me!  And this was said to be a middling War!  Amazing and wonderful.

The second year, I found myself swept up into the workings of Society, a new apprentice, being introduced around much faster than I could keep names straight.  I tried teaching on the big Gulf Wars scale, and thought hard about how to enter A&S competition.  I tried to fit my personal life into the SCA.  I worked hard on costuming, and was astonished that I couldn't fit whole categories of interests into my second attendance.  I now understand that this frustration is normal.  Heh.

This, my third year, finds me in even stranger and more wonderful territory.  This year I served on the entourage of Her Majesty Gwendolen, Meridies, and displayed my Coptic Embellishment entry in the A&S Open.  Serving as a lady-in-waiting is a LOT of work…but I really enjoyed it. 

There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that builds the spectacle we all get to share…even just the perspective of standing behind the thrones, watching people get their awards (trying to remember to pack tissues for those moved to tears), was incredibly powerful for me.  I value my fellow SCAdians even more now, and greatly respect the amount of effort that each person makes in order to be called up to that dais.  The first time seems to be the most important, too, the AoA, perhaps because then that person 'gets it', how to play our game.

HM Gwen is lots of fun, a fellow costumer with great ideas, and we had a grand time.  Perhaps because of the distraction, I was able to step away from my Coptic entry, and now see some serious improvements to be made to it…particularly in its tone.

In Arts & Science-land, it's easy to get caught up in your own work, and forget where you came from.  To forget that everyone's effort is a lot of work for them, and that they also deserve credit for what they have tried and what they do.  I'm going to be re-writing some aspects of my paper, as I take my studies forward, and certainly changing my title…because even though I am "picky", and I try to be "patient"…for me to imply that my method is the only acceptable way to create Coptic garb is just plain arrogant, misguided, and Not The Best Thing For Society.  We are a club of volunteers, of amateurs, in the 'love what we are doing' sense…and if I find myself in a position of publicity, merely by my projects and this platform, then I need to make clear that EVERY EFFORT IS GOOD.  And that I am terribly, terribly grateful to each and every one of you out there, because if you weren't all crazy like me, and all working hard like me, then we couldn't have the great and wonderful craziness that is the SCA together.  The work I see around me, not just in A&S competition, but in daily use, too, is so inspiring!  To anyone I may have inadvertently offended…I offer my heartfelt apologies, and hope to show consistently in future that I know I am honored and grateful to be included in such excellent company.

Thank you all – I can't tell you how much the SCA means to me, and how happy I am to have found it.

I can't believe how long my new 'want to do' list is!